Talbot turned to leave the room, when Mr. Belcher arrested him with the question: 

“Toll, would you like an office in the Crooked Valley corporation?”

Talbot knew that the corporation would have a disgraceful history, and a disastrous end—­that it would be used by the General for the purposes of stealing, and that the head of it would not be content to share the plunder with others.  He had no wish to be his principal’s cat’s-paw, or to be identified with an enterprise in which, deprived of both will and voice, he should get neither profit nor credit.  So he said: 

“No, I thank you; I have all I can do to take care of your goods, and I am not ambitious.”

“There’ll be nothing for you to do, you know.  I shall run the whole thing.”

“I can serve you better, General, where I am.”

“Well, by-by; I won’t urge you.”

After Talbot left, Mr. Belcher rose and carefully dressed himself.  Phipps was already at the door with the carriage, and, half an hour afterward, the great proprietor, full of his vain and knavish projects, took his seat in it, and was whirled off down to Wall street.  His brokers had already been charged with his plans, and, before he reached the ground, every office where the Crooked Valley stock was held had been visited, and every considerable deposit of it ascertained, so that, before night, by one grand swoop, the General had absorbed a controlling interest in the corporation.

A few days afterward, the annual meeting was held, Mr. Belcher was elected President, and every other office was filled by his creatures and tools.  His plans for the future of the road gradually became known, and the stock began to assume a better position on the list.  Weak and inefficient corporations were already in existence for completing the various connections of the road, and of these he immediately, and for moderate sums, bought the franchises.  Within two months, bonds were issued for building the roads, and the roads themselves were put under contract.  The “terminal facilities” of one end of every contract were faithfully attended to by Mr. Belcher.  His pockets were still capacious and absorbent.  He parted with so much of his appreciated stock as he could spare without impairing his control, and so at the end of a few months, found himself in the possession of still another harvest.  Not only this, but he found his power increased.  Men watched him, and followed him into other speculations.  They hung around him, anxious to get indications of his next movement.  They flattered him; they fawned upon him; and to those whom he could in any way use for his own purposes, he breathed little secrets of the market from which they won their rewards.  People talked about what “the General” was doing, and proposed to do, as if he were a well-recognized factor in the financial situation.